Chapter 10 #2
But when Darwin spun around, the butt of his M4 carbine snug against his shoulder as he clicked off the safety, there was nothing to engage. The drone should have been right in one of the few openings available under this section of trees, but it wasn’t.
“Where the hell is it?” Dean asked, looking left, right, and then upward. “How did it get into the trees with us? There are too many low-hanging branches for a pilot to be able to get in here, no matter how good they are.”
“I didn’t hear a damn thing,” Simon muttered.
“It doesn’t matter,” Lennox said. “We don’t know how they were able to engage us under the trees, but they did. They know we’re here, so stealth is out. We need to move. Speed is the only thing that will help now.”
“Actually, there’s one other thing,” Darwin said. “But for it to work, Simon, I’m going to need you to take off your clothes.”
Simon glanced sideways at him. “Is this your way of getting back at me for that crack I made earlier?”
“No, but it is a simple way to trick whoever is controlling that drone,” Darwin replied, moving under the heavy trees as he took off his vest and jacket. “If you wear my clothes and I wear yours, the drone operator should assume you’re me, and we get through this test without me being hit anymore.”
“Yeah, great for you,” Simon muttered as he pulled off his helmet and tactical vest. “You get away free and clear, while I get treated like a paint-splattered pinata. You sure this isn’t about the crack I made earlier?”
“Less talking, more stripping,” Darwin called out, dropping his dress pants. “The longer it takes us to get moving, the more likely it is they’ll figure out what we’re trying to do.”
Sixty seconds later, they’d changed clothes and reshuffled their formation, putting Simon in the middle as they darted toward the Jackson Hill extraction point.
They were still in the trees, running fast, when there was a flutter in the air off to the left, immediately followed by a stinging thud against Darwin’s left shoulder. The splash of paint told him everything he needed to know about how well their little clothing trick had worked.
“What the hell?” he muttered, even as another paint round slammed into his left hip. He glanced at Simon to see that he hadn’t been targeted at all. Nor had any of his other Teammates. “How could they know we changed clothes? They’re not targeting Simon at all.”
“Probably because I’m better looking than you, regardless of what we’re wearing,” Simon said.
Darwin would have responded with something snarky, but was too busy focusing on running to come up with anything.
“Anybody see anything?” Lennox asked. “Anything at all?”
“Nothing,” Trace and Dean both said.
“We’ll be out in the open soon,” Simon said. “Maybe we’ll be able to see it then.”
As Simon had predicted, they left the cover of the trees a few minutes later to find the ground sloping upward as they closed on Jackson Hill.
The next ten minutes were a nightmare as Darwin was pelted over and over by paintball rounds.
The damn things seemingly came out of nowhere, too.
He thought he heard a soft humming a few times, and even caught sight of a pitch-black silhouette of nothingness outlined against the star-filled sky, but no matter how many times they fired at the drone, there was no indication they ever hit it.
They tried different protective formations, tried to stop moving and wait for the drone to come at them, tried putting some of the guys out wide to flank the drone in hopes to see it coming.
Nothing worked.
Plain and simple, they got smoked.
By the time they topped Jackson Hill and the helicopter waiting there for them, they’d all been hit by paintball rounds multiple times. As for Darwin, he looked like a piece of modern art covered head to toe in orange splats of color. It felt disgusting, not to mention embarrassing as hell.
Darwin and the other guys didn’t say a word on the short trip to the flight line. Instead, they all sat in the helicopter, regaining their breath from the sprint up Jackson Hill.
“What the hell were we facing out there?” Lennox finally said over the hum of the copter’s rotors, his thoughts mirroring Darwin’s.
“As maneuverable as the thing was, it has to be a quad- or octo-copter,” Colt murmured. “But if so, it’s the fastest and quietest one I’ve ever heard of.”
“And the way it responded to our changes in tactics?” Dean shook his head. “It’s like the operator knew what we were going to do before we did. It has to be another SEAL in the driver’s seat. No one else could anticipate what we’d do.”
The mission outbriefing was similar to the first one they’d had, with the lead engineer, Giles Chambers, leading the Q&A session.
It was the same stuff as before, with the engineers wanting to know what they’d seen and heard, what they’d thought during the mission, why they’d taken the actions they had, and how they might do things differently next time.
When Darwin and his Teammates wanted to know how the Genesis platform had been able to navigate under the trees the way it had and then move away so quickly, Giles and the other engineers avoided anything that sounded like a direct answer.
The only thing they’d say was that Genesis had never been hit by any of their MILES shots.
They also confirmed the drone hadn’t been guided by a SEAL or anyone else in the military.
Darwin tried to press for answers––more out of frustrated curiosity than anything else––but nothing was forthcoming.
Five minutes later, the briefing ended with a vague reference to them being called back sometime for the third and final phase of the Genesis test program.
As bad as phase two had been, Darwin wasn’t looking forward to phase three, especially since it was implied there’d be live ammo involved this time.
Hopefully, the testing wouldn’t get in the way of the wedding coming up soon.
After cleaning up and changing clothes, Darwin and his Teammates headed to the flight line, and the helicopter waiting to take them back to Coronado.
This time, Darwin walked more slowly, keeping most of his attention on the hangar housing the Genesis drone.
His effort was rewarded when he caught sight of a dozen men and women in suits standing off to the side of the hangar doors, chatting eagerly with Giles.
And right there in the middle of the group were two very familiar people––Silas Forbes and Harold Thompson.
Suddenly, it all made sense. The two people from the wedding he’d been sure he’d seen somewhere before were two faces in the crowd of people he’d caught a glimpse of the first time he and the guys had been here.
He couldn’t believe he hadn’t figured it out before now, but in his defense, Silas and Harold had simply been random faces in the crowd.
“What’s up?” Lennox asked as they took their seats for the short flight back to Coronado.
“Remember those two guys I told you about from the wedding––Silas and Harold?” Darwin said as the helicopter took off and thumped its way into the sky.
“I just saw both of them in the hangar with the Genesis drone. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, but they’re somehow involved with this program. ”
“You think Arthur had something to do with the Genesis project as well?” Colt asked, leaning forward so he could talk without the crew chief hearing.
“I overheard Arthur arguing with Silas, Harold, and Rhett about trying to back out of a deal they’d already signed,” Darwin said.
“Arthur specifically said it was something dangerous that could get them killed. A couple hours later, he’s dead, and everyone is acting like they don’t even know who he is.
Now, we find out Silas and Harold are part of a classified Navy weapon program that’s probably worth millions of dollars.
The idea that Davis wasn’t involved in Genesis as well is hard to believe. ”
“So, your working theory is that someone is trying to, what, get out of the contract they signed with the Navy to develop the Genesis drone?” Dean asked. “Why would they do that, unless they think they can sell it to someone else?”
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Darwin admitted. “It could be that, or I could be completely wrong about all of this.”
“Should we tell Seth?” Lennox asked. “Though honestly, I’m not sure if we have enough to convince him of anything yet.”
They all batted that idea around for a while, finally deciding Lennox was right. They had nothing Seth would accept as proof, just a bunch of conjecture and wild conspiracies.
“While my gut is saying there’s definitely something going on with Silas, Harold, Upton, and Katrina’s brother and father, I think all we can do right now is wait until Kyla finishes her background checks on everyone involved and see what she uncovers,” Darwin said with a sigh.
“I’ll sniff around a little more and see if I can eavesdrop on some more conversations. Then we’ll take it from there.”
“Be careful,” Trace warned. “One man is already dead, and if you’re right about this being some million-dollar scheme to steal from the Navy, the people behind it sound like they’ll kill anyone who gets in their way.”
“I won’t do anything dangerous,” Darwin promised. “Not when Katrina would also be at risk. I don’t want any of this to get near her.”
Simon and the other guys let him know that if he needed help, they’d be there.
“All you have to do is call,” Simon added.